RENO, Nev. Crews working with search dogs recovered a 12th victim of Reno’s deadliest fire today.
The Halloween blaze charred most of an historic brick hotel in the downtown casino district.
Authorities finished operations aimed at shoring up the shell of the 84-year-old Mizpah Hotel and are optimistic the recovery effort will be completed by Thursday.
Reno fire department spokesman Steve Frady says there always is the potential for additional victims to be found, but searchers are getting close to the end of that point.
Business owners along the south side of the building also returned to their shops Tuesday afternoon and began removing equipment, furniture and other items.
Six of the victims have been identified through fingerprints. Their names will not be released until relatives have been notified.
The other victims were removed from the blackened shell of the hotel’s north wing, where the roof collapsed onto the third floor and part of that floor fell onto the second story.
Frady says their genders aren’t known at this point.
Police arrested Valerie Moore, a casino cook and paroled killer. They suspect she started the blaze by igniting a mattress inside the residential hotel.
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